TEACHING IN DEMOCRACY

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27592, 24 February 1955, Page 13

TEACHING IN DEMOCRACY

N.Z. Proposal For South Asia

Otoe. 10 p-m.) BANGKOK. Feb. 22. New Zealand and Australia might soon be asked to send teams of teachers to Indo-China and Siam, where they will have the responsibility of conducting an education campaign as a means of thwarting Communist subversion. The Minister of External Affairs (Mr T. L Macdonald) said this today during an interview after he had met the Australian Minister of External Affairs (Mr R. G. Casey) and discussed Mr Casey’s recent tour of Indo-China. Mr Casey was reported to have returned to Bangkok convinced that Laos faced a real threat to her security by Chinese Communist forces. One way to resist Communist infiltration and subversion would, both Mr Casey and Mr Macdonald believe, be through a well-developed education campaign designed to spread the democratic "gospel” throughout the softer areas embraced by the S.E.A.T.O. agreement. Mr Macdonald pointed out. however, that there was a teacher shortage in New Zealand, and that much further

consideration would have to be given to the question before any firm decision could be reached by the New Zealand Government The meeting between Mr Casey and Mr Macdonald was a private one. Although Mr Casey later met the United States Secretary of State (Mr Dulles), Mr Macdonald will probably not have the opportunity of any private discussion with him before the S.E.A.T.O. conference opens tomorrow. However, it is probable that both the New Zealand and Australian Ministers will, before the conference ends, emphasise their views to Mr Dulles and to other delegates during the conference and at out of session talks. SJLA.T.O. Secretariat There is agreement between the New Zealand and Australian Ministers on the probable size of the S.E.A.T.O. secretariat, which will be formally set up during the Bangkok conference. Tne New Zealand view is that the secretariat should be maintained at a limited number —probably 10—to carry out the required planning for the military and economic co-ordination of the respective committees’ work as well as the streamlining of bilateral aid being given to S.E.A.T.O. countries under the Colombo Plan. Mr Casey, at a press conference tonight, said he thought that a secretariat of about eight would be sufficient for those duties. Each member of it, he thought, should be of “reasonably senior diplomatic status.” He also said he wanted to see council of the secretariat move around the countries in the S.E.A.T.O. agreement.